RALEIGH, N.C. — A ceremony Friday (May 30) marking the 30th anniversary of the North Carolina’s Piedmont passenger rail service between Raleigh and Charlotte, repainting a locomotive into the original Piedmont paint scheme to mark the event.
Piedmont service was launched on May 26, 1995, with state-owned equipment. It has grown from a single daily round trip to the current four daily round trips. The event Friday also marked 35 years of Amtrak’s state-supported Carolinian between Charlotte and New York City, which launched in May 1990.
The state-supported services, branded as NC By Train, carried more than 720,000 people in 2024, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said in a press release earlier this year. That was a third straight year of record ridership, up 12% from 2023 and an increase of 55% over pre-pandemic 2019.
The repainted locomotive was built in 1990 for Toronto area commuter system GO Transit. It is one of six former GO locomotives in the state’s fleet. The scheme is based on the state flag.
Congrats + more power & perseverance to the great NCDOT and great Amtrak!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The masterfully repainted mighty EMD F59PH No. 1893 City of Burlington looks absolutely fabulous!
Remember that this adorable engine was rebuilt by Amtrak’s Beech Grove Maintenance Facility in 2011.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün